The Secret Secret Identity
by Stumblefoot
Summary: Rude had her cloak stolen. Wisdom is missing a book. Someone took Rage's fire. Who is the thief? Meanwhile, Beast Boy wants to be a dragon. Guess what kind of dragon he wants to be? BBxRae. Conservatively rated T because sometimes Titans swear. Reviews welcome.
1. Chapter 1

_Sometimes we become separated from our souls and cannot find our way back. At times like these we may make our lives a story, to substitute another meaning for what we have lost. We may be our own hero or villain depending on our own thoughts as we live this narrative we create. _

_The trouble is that we know only so much, and often it is that knowledge that set us on the wrong path to begin with. With that knowledge we cannot correct our way of being. Thus the stories often end in tragedy or death because we are unable to change the story and restore ourselves._

_You may wish to pursue someone of wisdom but even I will tell you that is an error; you are not seeking someone who has all knowledge but rather someone who has lived their own life, knows another story, and who loves you enough to say, "I see how it ends differently." And they give you a new chapter or a new paragraph or a sentence or even a single word, and from that moment your life is something new. _

_This is how we will all bring each other home. _

_Wisdom_

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"There is no one here named _thief_," Wisdom said calmly. "There is no one here named _criminal_."

"My cloak is still missing," Rude insisted. "I haven't lost it. It's gone!"

"My sword, too," Brave said apologetically to Wisdom. "I thought I must have lost it when fighting those guardians, but then Rude told me about her cloak..."

"My flowers," said Joy, looking at Raven's other sides, smiling and shrugging. "I would have given them to you if you'd asked."

"My fire," hissed Rage, "and I would not have given it to anyone, and I want it returned."

"My blankets," said Sloth in her rusty voice.

"My diadem," said Affection.

Timid turned even paler as the others stared at her, and stuttered, "I... I had a bear and it.. I had.. it's gone." She pulled the hood up on her gray cloak and hid behind Wisdom.

"We are all missing something..." Wisdom said thoughtfully.

"I didn't hear you say you had anything taken from you," Rude challenged. "Or are you the thief yourself?"

Brave frowned and stepped forward. Wisdom raised a hand for her to stop and shook her head. "I am missing a book. And it would be foolish to steal from one of you. It would be foolish for any of us to do it. We're all Raven. Why would we steal from ourselves? How could we not know?"

Rude rolled her eyes. "That doesn't get my cloak back."

"We'll ask Raven tonight," Wisdom said. "If one of us stole from the others, she'll know."

"And if not?"

Wisdom glanced at Brave. "Then there's someone else here. Someone who doesn't belong."

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Cyborg sighed happily as he started on the last set of diagnostics for the T-Car. Cars were machines that made sense. You took care of them, and they worked properly. You upgraded them, and they worked better. And they made way more sense than people.

He heard a noise as the door opened and Beast Boy's trademark "I am trying to be casual" whistling. Speaking of people who didn't make sense. The car shifted a little as Beast Boy leaned against it.

"'Sup, Cy?"

Cyborg didn't bother looking out from under the hood. "Hey B. Anything going on?"

"Nah." Cyborg's biosensors picked up an increased stress in Beast Boy's voice as he added, "But I did want to ask you something."

Cyborg, hidden by the hood, smiled to himself, but kept his voice flat. _Did he finally work up some nerve?_ "Sure."

Beast Boy's voice remained tense. "It's about Raven. I want you to ask her something for me."

_Ask __**for**__ him? What the -_ Cyborg straightened up so quickly he banged his head on the car hood. Swearing, he eased backwards and straightened up, rubbing his head and glaring at Beast Boy. "What? No!"

"But you don't even know what I -"

"Yeah I do! You want to ask her out, and you want me to do it because you know she'll turn you into a small green grease spot." Cyborg turned back to the car. "B, get over it, right now. She will not go out with you ever."

Beast Boy's jaw dropped. "What? No!"

Cyborg nodded. "That's what I just said."

"No, dude, I mean – no, I didn't want to ask her out. Except if you think –"

"What did I just say?" Cyborg demanded. "I am not going there! You are not going there! The entire universe is _not going there_!"

"Okay, fine!" Beast Boy raised his hands and backed off. "That's not what I wanted to ask her anyway. I wanted you to do it because – I don't want to hurt her feelings. I always say the wrong thing and make her mad."

"You **are** good at that," Cyborg said absently as he leaned back over the car and scanned the diagnostic. He had to flush the system, he had to change some wiring...

"It's about Malchior."

Cyborg barely missed bashing his head on the underside of the hood again as he stood up. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"I've been thinking about that fight we had with him."

"We had a fight, we won, Raven got rid of that enchanted book, the end."

"It was a good fight, though, wasn't it? I mean, he was huge, he could fly, he could breathe fire..."

Cyborg cocked an eyebrow. "What's your point?"

Beast Boy grinned crookedly. "I didn't have time to figure out how to morph into it." When Cyborg didn't say anything, just looked at him, he added, "I want you to ask Raven if I can borrow the book. I want to learn to be a dragon."


	2. Chapter 2

Raven slipped into her room and as the door shut she allowed herself a sigh of relief.

_Long day_. Breakfast, training, Cinderblock, more training, Cinderblock _again_ (they had warned the police about transporting him in a regular van but the squad captain was new and thought he had all the answers), and the weekly meeting.

And it wasn't over yet. Raven hung up her cloak and lit a stick of incense. She had been feeling on edge for hours – her skin prickled like a thunderstorm was coming. The hectic day hadn't allowed much introspection, but she knew something was wrong.

The meditation mirror was still hanging on the wall. Raven turned to it, watched for a moment, and vanished.

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"We have mice," Sloth said lazily.

It was so unexpected for Sloth to say anything that Raven almost laughed. "Mice?"

They were sitting in the courtyard of Gloucester Cathedral as reimagined by Raven. All her sides lived here, despite the strange places they had conjured up for Beast Boy and Cyborg's visit.

Brave had perched on a statue of Harrik the two-faced guard (not one of the original Gloucester statues) and was idly drumming on its head with her green-gloved fists. "I'm missing my sword."

Raven shrugged. "Make another one."

"That's not the point and you know it," Rude snapped. "Someone has been stealing."

Raven looked over at Wisdom, who sat sedately on a bench, her yellow cloak gathered close. "Are you missing something?"

"A book." Wisdom hesitated and added, "One you gave me to keep for you."

Rude sneered. "Your boyfriend's book. The dragon book. _Now_ do you care?"

Raven reminded herself for the ten thousandth time that Rude was a part of her and that sometimes negative, aggressive energy was necessary to get things done and that it would be unproductive to start yelling at one of her sides. "I would care," she said flatly, "No matter what it was."

Joy interrupted gently, "We were hoping you might know if there is a thief at all, or if it's something else."

Raven closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and let them open again as she exhaled. She looked at each of them in turn. Joy, smiling at her. Affection, staring back at the stone surrounding them. Rage, pacing back and forth a little separately from the group. Brave, still sitting on the statute. Timid, huddled in her cloak at the foot of the same statue as if staying close for protection. Rude, kicking up the grass and the dirt of the courtyard. Sloth, laying on her back, getting her clothes dirty, and looking at the sky. Wisdom, watching Raven.

Nothing.

Raven opened her senses a little further. Her sides maintained the energy it was dangerous for her to express. But they were not expressive of all her emotions and she could feel the shades of the sub-sides all around her. Shame, Terror, and Confusion were in the cathedral, rampaging like ghosts, agitated by the other sides. Regret and Madness paced up and down the cloisters. Patience waited in the nave.

But they could not steal.

She shook her head and looked at Wisdom. "No. None of you stole anything."

Wisdom nodded. "I thought so. We have had no visitors from your team. So it is someone else." She stood up and went to Raven, taking her hand. "There is someone else here. We need to find them."

With Wisdom's steady energy, Raven reached out even further. She didn't completely understand how this place worked. When she was four years old her mother, Arella, had helped her create it, helped her channel inexpressible energy into her sides and give them a home.

It was infinite if she wanted it to be so or incredibly small. She had created it but there were still puzzles and surprises here she had not placed.

And someone could hide here.

In the same way that someone can recognize their own handwriting or their own voice, Raven's senses swept through the realm of her sides and knew all of it to be hers. Everything was normal, everything was right – except -

There was a feeling somewhere, she could barely detect it. It wasn't anything she knew

– but it had the unmistakable red tinge of her father.

Far away a dull booming began. Someone was banging on her bedroom door.

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Raven came back to herself sitting on her bed. She got up wearily and put her cloak on, not even needing to guess who was still pounding on the door. Cyborg and Beast Boy. She could even hear them faintly as they argued.

_I said I would help, but I'm not going to do your talking! _

_Dude, she's gonna be mad, she's gonna kill me - _

_If you don't want to do it, forget it, but if you think Raven would hurt you or me or any other Titan you're an idiot. Now make up your mind. _

Raven pulled her hood up and opened the door. "Make up your mind about what?"

Beast Boy backed away from the door. "Um, on second thought -"

Cyborg grabbed his shoulder. "Raven, Beast Boy wants to ask you something. And I have told him that if you don't want to, you'll just say no, and that will be that. Right?" Above Beast Boy's head their eyes met. Cyborg winked.

Raven wondered how much more insufferable Beast Boy would be without Cyborg running interference. "Right."

Beast Boy shrugged off Cyborg's hand and turned to glare at him, then looked back at Raven. "So, um. Yeah. So. Malchior."

Through a rush of embarrassment Raven stared at him. "Malchior?"

Best Boy fidgeted. "So he was a dragon. In that book. When we fought."

"So yes -" Raven shot back sarcastically. "So he was, and if you don't have anything better to do than remind me of the stupidest thing I ever -"

"Rae," Cyborg said quietly, "He really does want to ask you something."

Beast Boy straightened up. "I want to – borrow that book. That Malchior book. I want to learn how to morph into that dragon."

Raven blinked. "The book?"

"Yeah," Beast Boy said, feeling better now that he'd gotten the question out. "I need to study it a little more before I can change -"

"This can't be a coincidence," Raven interrupted. Cyborg noted with alarm that her eyes were turning red. "This can't possibly be – come on. Now." Grabbing Beast Boy's wrist and Cyborg's hand, she muttered _"Azarath metrion zinthos,"_ and the three of them disappeared.


End file.
